The Character of God is Revealed by His Judgement Pt.2
PSALM 9:16a
16 The LORD is known by the judgment which he executeth:
We have paraphrased this scripture for our subject title… “The Character of God is Revealed by His Judgement”
We want to quickly go through a few of the scriptures that show us how that the death sentence was pronounced for different transgressions – and this may seem quite negative to read as our opening scriptures, but we are doing this for the purpose of getting a better perspective for the reality of the strictness and the seriousness of the laws of God concerning certain trespasses.
EXODUS 21:15
15 And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death.
EXODUS 21:17
17 And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death. (This law alone would probably wipe out at least half of the modern youth of our western civilisation – and there is also another scripture in Deuteronomy 21:20 that requires the stoning to death of a son that is stubborn and rebellious and will not obey his father or mother)
EXODUS 21:29
29 But if the ox were wont to push with his horn in time past, and it hath been testified to his owner, and he hath not kept him in, but that he hath killed a man or a woman; the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death.
EXODUS 22:19
19 Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death.
(This was Eve’s transgression - of laying with a beast which was the serpent)
EXODUS 31:15
15 Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.
LEVITICUS 20:12
12 And if a man lie with his daughter in law, both of them shall surely be put to death: they have wrought confusion; their blood shall be upon them.
13 If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. (It is interesting to think about how that none of these sexual sins would have ever needed to be expressed by God if the fall in Eden hadn’t taken place)
LEVITICUS 24:16
16 And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the LORD, shall be put to death. (Blasphemy is connected with bring a reproach of God)
LEVITICUS 20:10 (These next two verses are laws that deal directly with the sin that king David committed)
10 ¶ And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
LEVITICUS 24:17
17 And he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death.
It is very clear to us that by these last two laws that had been given through Moses, that king David and Bathsheba should have been put to death according to the law of God – but we know that that is not what happened, yet God has to keep his judgements, or His judgements will mean nothing.
The Character of God is Revealed by His Judgement Pt.2
This study is from the message “The God who is Rich in Mercy” 19th of January 1965
From the beginning, it was never intended by God for mankind (his children) to have to learn and memorise hundreds of laws and rules and then spend their entire lives constantly struggling and trying to keep those rules especially under the opposing conditions of the pressure of man’s fallen human nature and chemistry – it just wasn’t so from the beginning.
**But the law had a purpose in that it revealed the sin of man and the penalty of that sin – and we could never have understood what sin was otherwise.
ROMANS 7:7-10
7 ¶ What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence (concupiscence = Lust for what is forbidden). For without the law sin was dead.
9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. (Because death is the penalty of sin)
10 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
And so the law of God was what revealed the sin of man.
*But in the beginning, there was no need for the law, because God created a man to naturally and unconsciously keep the laws of God by the indwelling nature of God dwelling within the character of man.
In other words, the nature of God was the control tower that controlled the motives and the actions of a man automatically from the inside spirit of man which was the spirit of God dwelling within the man. God and man were one in the beginning.
*And so man was never design by God to be governed and controlled by an outside source of hundreds of written rules and regulations, and that is why we are mostly such failures at it. But it is because of man’s fallen character that he needed a whole list of laws written down with a whole bunch of judgements and penalties attached to those laws in order to try to tame and keep his fallen nature and character in check to at least some degree.
*And so this law of God that was given by God through Moses – what it did was that it revealed our sin, because without the law, sin could not have been known. But once the law of God has been declared and made known, then it revealed to us the reality of the fact that everyone in some way has failed God and crossed the line of God’s justice by “missing the mark”, thus placing each one of us in line for the justice and penalty of that law to be measured out to us.
NUMBERS 15:32-36
32 And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day.
33 And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation.
34 And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him.
35 And the LORD said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp.
36 And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the LORD commanded Moses.
Think about this.
If you had lived back then, and you happened to wake up one morning and had mistaken what day it was that day, and you had wandered out of your tent and picked up a few sticks, then that was enough for you to have been put to death – and so the point is that it didn’t take very much for a man to be guilty of death.
*And it wasn’t that God was making up senseless rules that he knew man couldn’t keep – because these laws of God had been established before the foundation of the world in that they were the fundamental and eternal laws of God that had always existed, and so not even God himself could alter those laws because of the fact that He is the unchanging God, and so this is why God was bound by His own law.
**Yet when we arrive at 2nd Samuel chapter 11 and 12, we find that David was seemingly not dealt with according to the Judgement of God as pronounce by God through the law that was given by Moses.
II SAMUEL 12:13-14
13 And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. (There were three things of condemnation going on here for David, because on top of God’s law of the penalty of death for the double crimes that David had committed of adultery followed by the murder of Uriah, David had also pronounced the judgement of his own death because he had been the rich man in the story that Nathan had told to him about the poor man’s lamb that the rich man had taken – and so it was in effect a threefold death sentence unanimously agreed on by God and himself) And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.
(Mercy rewrote David’s life – because God was rich in Mercy)
14 Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme (David’s enemies would look at David’s sin and it would bring a reproach upon the God that David claimed to believe in), the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.
The penalty of David’s sin was transferred to the son of David which is also showing us that all of our sins that are also worthy of death were also transferred to the Son of David – Christ.
*This mercy that God had shown to David is revealing to us the depth of the very character and nature of God in that God would transferred the debt of our transgressions and sins and iniquities, and take the penalty of that death upon Himself in our stead.
ISAIAH 53:5-6
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
PSALM 103:10-17
10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
11 For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
13 Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.
14 For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.
(God understood that David was living in a temporal and fallen body that was made up of dust and subject to sin.)
15 As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
16 For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.
17 But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children;
*We spoke last week of how that the way a person judges another person can reveal a lot about that person’s character.
And so when someone is able to quietly bear the judgement for something they didn’t do, then that requires a much greater quality of character than that of a person demanding and receiving justice and recompense.
I PETER 2:20-24
20 For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.
21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:
22 Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:
23 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:
24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
Last week we spent some time defining the difference between the meaning of the words Sin, Iniquity, and Transgression.
*Sin is described as "missing the mark", of what we would consider our general failures towards God and man either consciously or unconsciously.
*While “iniquity” is the thing that is at the seat of the sin, it is the underlying motivation within the fallen nature of the spirit of a man that causes him to transgress.
* And “transgression” can be described as the wilful and deliberate overstepping of a known boundary.
And so we saw how king David used these three words in his Psalm’s 51 to fully describe his sin.
PSALM 51:1-3
1 ¶ To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. (His transgression was his willful disobedience of deliberately overstepping a known boundary)
2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity (In other words – I need an inner cleansing in order to fix this problem. Remember that he is not wanting or expecting God to take away his natural desires for woman because he was a married man with many wives, but it was his desire for illegal relations that was what he needed God to wash him from), and cleanse me from my sin (from missing the mark).
3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
(This is showing us how that we are also to acknowledge our transgressions)
LEVITICUS 16:21-22 (We read this scripture last week)
21 And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness:
22 And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness. (This is Christ in this verse)
**The knowledge of your freedom from sin and iniquity is a very powerful revelation.
In a court case of when a person’s has been kept jailed in custody for some suspected crime that they have been accuse of, when they are pronounced free by the court, then that is (no doubt) one of the most incredible feelings that a human being can experience.
As soon as the jury or judge pronounces their freedom, then even though they would still be in hand cuffs when their freedom is pronounced, yet at that very spit second they are free.
THE.GOD.WHO.IS.RICH.IN.MERCY_ PHOENIX.AZ V-19 N-2 TUESDAY_ 65-0119
38 "You once, in times past, dead." You were dead. Even many here tonight, one time, can look back and know that you were dead. But now why aren't you dead tonight, as you were then? You deserve to be that way, because you was a sinner, "but God Who is rich in mercy." That's the--that's the thing, "God Who was rich." All these things that we were, "but God"! That made the change right there, "God Who is rich in mercy"!
39 Oh, I'm so glad for that, that He being rich in mercy. If He was just rich in money, if He was just rich in materials, which He is, but yet the greatest thing is being rich in mercy. Oh, what a great word that is, how that we were once dead.
**Brother Branham is trying to show us something here in this message about God’s character, that it is not just about His wealth of how rich He is in material things, but that God is also very rich in mercy and forgiveness.
There are many rich people in the world today that have an abundance of wealth and riches, but yet their great wealth is no evidence that they are also rich in mercy and forgiveness.
And then on the contrary, a person can be poor in money, but then rich in mercy.
**But God is both – he is rich in wealth and rich in mercy, and he also wants us to be rich in mercy.
MATTHEW 5:7
7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
**A little while back we were having lunch with some of the brothers, and we began to talk about the love of God and of how great and merciful He is in His character.
We talked about the story of how the Holy Spirit had warned Brother Branham of a trap that was set for him regarding the disrespectful couple in the back of the church that God had giving him the power to speak whatever judgement he felt to speak over them, and then how that he had forgiven them even when they hadn’t deserved it.
**And then the Holy Spirit told him that that was what He wanted Him to say – in other words, we know that Brother Branham (in the eyes of God) reflected the right character in that situation, because that was what God wanted him to say in order to reflect God’s own character back to God - because God’s character is rich is mercy.
**And so we also want this character of being rich in mercy to be in us also, just like this example, because then we can be sure that we are also pleasing God by reflecting back His own character out from us of being rich in mercy. And that requires a work of God and a maturity to come into us.
**And then there is the story of woman in the dinner that Brother Branham had felt so critical towards and had condemned her in his heart – and so we want to read this story together.
THE.UNCERTAIN.SOUND_ BLOOMINGTON.IL SATURDAY_ 61-0415E
E-8 Well, on Sunday I hadn't eaten for maybe two days, getting ready for the great afternoon service (perhaps when this lad was converted, or brought to Christ). And so... Mr. Baxter was speaking for me, if you remember, the afternoon services in the--in the preliminaries. And so I--I got hungry. And I knowed I was just going to preach that afternoon; I wasn't going to have no healing service. So I kinda thought, "Well, it wouldn't hurt me to eat a sandwich." I said, "I--I preach so hard, usually," I said, "and so long, it'll--it'll all be digested before night comes for the healing service."
So I said... I went over, and the little Mennonite place had closed up. And they'd gone to church, and place was closed. So I walked across the road to just an ordinary little American stop, where they had sandwiches and cold drinks.
E-9 I hate to say this. It just hurts me, 'cause it's our own nation, but to see it so degrading... When I walked in the place, the first thing was a policeman, standing with his arm around a woman in the wrong place, playing a slot machine. Now, gambling's illegal in Ohio. Many of you Ohio people know that. And then a policeman, which is supposed to be upholding the law, standing there breaking the law; and a man my age (perhaps had children at home and a wife) standing there with a arm around a woman. I looked, and I thought, "Oh, my."
I heard somebody laughing, and I looked back towards the back, and a bunch of these here boys... What is you call them? Beatniks, or ever what...? That there flat-looking hair cut on the top, and a duck sitting on the back of their neck or something, overall jackets on, and their pants pulled way down like this. Boys, be a man. You got better making than that. Oh, my. So there they sat back there and a young lady not over seventeen or eighteen years old... And that young lady, the way they were doing, and pulling around over her, it was a shame. And I thought, "Well, what about that?"
E-10 I heard somebody say, "Do you think the rain will hurt the rhubarb?" And I looked over on this side, and there sat a woman... Now, I'm telling... And I--I don't--I don't believe this is a place to joke. This is a place to be honest and truthful.
And there set a woman that could've been my grandmother. She was setting there with those little bitty immoral clothes on. And the woman had purple painted toenails. Now, I've had my toenail purple, but after I'd stumped it or something. But it was purple painted toenails, with purple painted manicure on--on her lips, you know, and--and--and little spots on her face. And the little--the lady had real short cut hair and painted blue.
E-11 Now, I--I--that... Now, that lady's got a right to anything she wants to (See?); that's nothing to me (See?), but I--I don't believe the Lord ever made anybody with blue hair. I--I--It looked real strange. And the poor old thing, old... And--or the meat on her arm was flabby, hanging, you know, like that. And so I looked at her.
And there was an old man, and it was... I'm 'fraid it was summertime, late spring, around May or June. And the old fellow setting there with an army overcoat on, and a big scarf wrapped around his neck, two of them, drunk. They were setting there drinking. So they excused themselves and went out and left her alone.
E-12 I stood there, and I said, "Almighty God, Creator of heavens and earth, I come from a mountain top to a rat den." And I said, "How can You, being holy, as I know You are, ever look upon such a scene as that and let it exist? Why don't you just send an earthquake and sink the whole thing?" I said, "To mean that my little Sarah and Rebekah will have to be raised up under such stuff as that? To have to, like that young woman back there, and looky here at that women, and here, and men acting the way they are. And the laws of our land a rotten and polluted, and--and... The laws are all right, but them who are trying to enforce it, and such a thing as that... I thought...
E-14 …Now, I do not know that lady, and I don't know who done that interpreting. I do not know this man. But now, if you've got any doubt of whether it was right or not, wait till I finish my story.
I wanted God to strike her dead, strike the whole thing out. And I felt a real funny feeling. I stepped back behind the door. (Listen, what he said, "It's I, God, that was given," See?). And I stepped back behind the door. Now, this for you Methodist students in the building; listen to this. And God is my judge. I stepped behind the door, and I said... Something was going on.
And I looked, and it was a vision moving. And I seen the earth, and there was like a--a circle or a mist of red, around the earth, turning. And I--looked like that my eyes focused upon myself on the earth, doing sinful things that I should not do.
And every time I started to do something wrong, I noticed it would go up before God. And if it wasn't for that misting Blood, I would've died. But the Blood of Jesus act like a bumper on a car. And ever time my sin would hit God, before God's throne, looked like it would strike Jesus before it struck the throne. And He'd shake His head, and the tears would roll down His cheeks, and He'd say, "Father, forgive him; he doesn't know what he's doing."
Then I'd do something else wrong, and then looked like that He was just acting like a bumper between me and death, because God had already pronounced my death the day I sinned. That was the day I died. And then, I could not understand, why that that mist around the earth?
E-15 And I looked up there, and my--my book was open. Now, that's a vision, just like I see here in the building, only these are just ones that you 'cause. That was one God gave. And I noticed that there was my name on a book, and all kinds of sins was wrote against me on that book.
And I said, "Lord, did my sins make You suffer like that?" And He was crying; the tears was in his face, and--and he looked so weary, His poor drooped-down eyes. And I seen my sins had caused Him to suffer. I said, "Lord Jesus, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that my sins caused You to--to have to suffer for me. Will You forgive me? I promise that I--I'll be good, and I'll do everything I can, if You'll just forgive me."
And He touched his side with his hand. And He wrote across that book, "Pardoned," pushed it over his back in the sea of forgetfulness, to remember it no more against me. And I fell on my knees, and I said, "O Lord, I can never live long enough to express to You my gratefulness for You forgiving my sins."
He said, "Now, I freely forgive you of everything you done, and you want to destroy her."
There is a story in the bible of a rich king that was also rich in mercy.
MATTHEW 18:21-35
21 ¶ Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?
22 Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.
23 Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants.
24 And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents.
25 But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.
26 The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him (Only God is to be worshiped, and so this king can only be one person - God Himself), saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.
27 Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.
28 But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest.
29 And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.
30 And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt.
31 So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done.
32 Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:
33 Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?
34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.
35 So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.
In other words – we are forgiven by God in the same way that we forgive others. God expects us to forgive those who have trespassed against us.
MATTHEW 6:11-12 (The Lord’s prayer)
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
**As you forgive others, then that is the same way that you will be forgiven by God.
**And so true forgiveness from the heart takes the character of mercy - of a willingness to take a loss on behalf of someone else’s injustice that they owe you.
RUTH 4:4-6
4 And I thought to advertise thee, saying, Buy it before the inhabitants, and before the elders of my people. If thou wilt redeem it, redeem it: but if thou wilt not redeem it, then tell me, that I may know: for there is none to redeem it beside thee; and I am after thee. And he said, I will redeem it. (This man was a rich man, and so he was able to do this work of redemption because of his wealth – but then the story takes a turn that reveals not just his wealth, but now it reveals his character)
5 Then said Boaz, What day thou buyest the field of the hand of Naomi, thou must buy it also of Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance.
6 And the kinsman said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar mine own inheritance: redeem thou my right to thyself; for I cannot redeem it.
He abdicates his role in order to protect his own inheritance, because by redeeming Elimelech’s land he is also required to marry Ruth and produce an heir for Elimelech who would then legally own that land thereby marring his own inheritance – in other words, he wasn’t prepared to take a personal loss on behalf of his fellow kinsman, but Boaz was, and so the difference was their characters.
DEUTERONOMY 25:5-6
5 ¶ If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband's brother unto her.
6 And it shall be, that the firstborn which she beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel.
Look at the blessing of life that came out of the lineage of this redemptive work.
RUTH 4:21-22
21 And Salmon begat Boaz, and Boaz begat Obed,
22 And Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David.
And look at the blessing of life that came out of the selflessness of God’s great character.